International disputes:
prolonged drought and cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan created water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states; field demarcation of the boundaries with Kazakhstan commenced in 2004; border delimitation of 130 km of border with Kyrgyzstan is hampered by serious disputes around enclaves and other areas.

Geography

Uzbekistan is
situated in central Asia between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, the
Aral Sea, and the slopes of the Tien Shan Mountains. It is bounded by
Kazakhstan in the north and northwest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the east
and southeast, Turkmenistan in the southwest, and Afghanistan in the south.
The republic also includes the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, with its
capital, Nukus (1992 est. pop., 182,000). The country is about one-tenth
larger in area than the state of California.

Government

Republic; authoritarian presidential
rule.

History

The Uzbekistan
land was once part of the ancient Persian Empire and was later conquered by
Alexander the Great in the 4th centuryB.C.During the 8th century, the nomadic Turkic tribes living there were
converted to Islam by invading Arab forces who dominated the area. The
Mongols under Ghengis Khan took over the region from the Seljuk Turks in the
13th century, and it later became part of Tamerlane the Great's empire and
that of his successors until the 16th century. The Uzbeks invaded the
territory in the early 16th century and merged with the other inhabitants in
the area. Their empire broke up into separate Uzbek principalities, the
khanates of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand. These city-states resisted Russian
expansion into the area but were conquered by the Russian forces in the
mid-19th century.

The territory was made into the Uzbek Republic in
1924 and became the independent Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic in
1925. Under Soviet rule, Uzbekistan concentrated on growing cotton with the
help of irrigation, mechanization, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
causing serious environmental damage.

Indpendent, but with Appalling Conditions

In June 1990, Uzbekistan was
the first central Asian republic to declare that its own laws had
sovereignty over those of the central Soviet government. Uzbekistan became
fully independent and joined with ten other former Soviet republics on Dec.
21, 1991, in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Vozrozhdeniye,
an island in the Aral Sea, was a secret test site for biological weapons
during the Soviet era. In 1988, the Soviets attempted to bury the evidence
on the island, a frightening legacy that Uzbekistan inherited upon
independence. U.S. scientists have confirmed that the island contains live
anthrax and other deadly poisons.

President Karimov, a former
Communist Party boss, is an autocrat who has brutally suppressed political
parties and religious freedom and maintained rule with an iron fist. In
1999, after a bus hijacking, he declared, "I am prepared to rip off the
heads of 200 people, to sacrifice their lives, in order to save peace and
calm in the republic." The country's thousands of political and religious
prisoners are subject to appalling conditions and horrific torture,
including being boiled alive.

In 1999, the country battled against
militant Islamic groups bent on the overthrow of the secular government.
Fighting against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) continued for the
next several years.

A Rocky Relationship with the United States

In 2001, Uzbekistan provided the U.S. and UK with
a base to fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in neighboring
Afghanistan and became the United States' main regional partner in the war
on terror. Karimov linked his own battle against the Islamic opposition to
the global fight on terrorism. He also exploited the real threat of
Islamicism by labeling all of his opponents as Islamic extremists. As a
strategic partner, the U.S. has been reluctant to take a firm stand
regarding Uzbekistan's dismal human rights record. According to a report in
the New York Times in May 2005, the U.S. has sent clandestine
planeloads of accused terrorists to Uzbekistan as part of its controversial
"rendition" program, the delivery of prisoners to countries with abusive
interrogation tactics that are prohibited in the United States.

On May
13, 2005, unarmed antigovernment demonstrators in the city of Andijan were
killed in a military crackdown; the number of casualties is still disputed,
but it may be as many as 1,000. Earlier, a number of protesters had stormed
a prison and released about 2,000 prisoners to protest what they saw as the
rigged trial of 23 businessmen. The government claimed the men were Islamic
terrorists; the protesters insisted the 23 were antigovernment civic leaders
whom the government saw as a threat to its authority. In July 2005,
President Karimov ordered the U.S. military to close its air base in
Uzbekistan after the U.S. called for an inquiry into the massacre and
supported the airlift of Uzbek refugees escaping the violence. The base was
shut down four months later, with U.S. forces moving to
Kyrgyzstan.

Karimov was reelected in December 2007, taking 88.1% of
the vote. The opposition claimed the vote was rigged.

Human Rights Watch Expelled

In March 2011, the Uzbekistan government expelled all Human Rights Watch employees from
the country. The government gave no reason for the expulsion. Human Rights Watch released a statement
that indicated the decision came after years of harassment by government officials. In the statement, the group said, "Well
over a dozen human rights and political activists and independent journalists are in prison, torture and
ill-treatment in the criminal justice system are systematic, and serious violations go unpunished."
Human Rights Watch called on the European Union and the United States to come down harder on Uzbekistan
for its human rights violations.

Both the U.S. and the European Union have worked to improve relations with Uzbekistan
in recent months. A neighbor of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan offers a route for the United States to get supplies to get into that country.

Militant Leader Killed by U.S. Drone Strike

In early August 2012, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a major militant group with close ties to Al Qaeda, announced that the group's leader, Uthman Adil, had been killed in a U.S. drone strike. Adil was killed in Pakistan, near the Afghan border back in April 2012 when a U.S. drone fired missiles into a tribal region. Adil's death was confirmed by a security official from Pakistan who said his death was a "major blow" to the militant group.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has a reputation for extreme violence even when compared to other militant groups in the region. Therefore, its members have been attacked repeatedly by U.S. drones. One of these previous attacks killed Tahir Yuldashev, the group's leader before Adil.

Presidential elections were held in March 2015.
Incumbent Islam Karimov won, receiving more than 90% of the vote.
Election turnout was 91%. Uzbekistan's first and only president, Karimov has been in office since 1990.